Brig. Gen. Twitty back at Fort Bliss to shape growth

Brig. Gen. Stephen Twitty, center, greets well-wishers after a ceremony to welcome him on his return to Fort Bliss on Tuesday at the post's museum. Twitty assumes the post of Fort Bliss deputy commander.

FORT BLISS -- A man who has led Fort Bliss soldiers into battle has returned to the post to help prepare it for its growing role in the Army.

Brig. Gen. Stephen Twitty took his new post as deputy commanding general of Fort Bliss on Tuesday in a ceremony at the post's museum.

One of his main focuses will be training and preparing the post's brigade combat teams for deployment.

"I know that there's been a lot of work that's been conducted on the (training) ranges and facilities since my departure. I'm looking forward to getting out and seeing the improvements, and then where I can use my ideas to help leverage more capabilities out there," Twitty said. "I'm interested in not only making this a world-class Army installation, but a world-class training facility as well."

Twitty said he'd like to see features such as mock villages on the training ranges. He'd also like to have training ranges that would allow Air Force assets and unmanned aerial vehicles to be used "in order to train our soldiers properly in the environment that they will face in combat," he said.

Twitty will also assist Fort Bliss commanding general Maj. Gen. Dana Pittard with the post's physical and personnel expansion, working on infrastructure matters and equipment maintenance.

"Right now, I consider myself a jack of all trades," Twitty said. "Wherever General Pittard needs me the most, I will be there."

Twitty has been in the Army for 25 years and has extensive combat experience.

Advertisement

In 2003, he led an infantry battalion from the 3rd Infantry Division during the invasion of Iraq, where he was awarded the Silver Star for his leadership.

This is Twitty's second assignment to Fort Bliss. He took command of the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, there in June 2005. He went on to lead the brigade through a difficult 14-month deployment to Iraq. The brigade operated in and around the city of Mosul, in the Nineveh province.

The brigade's soldiers faced an active insurgency that produced and deployed a vast number of improvised explosive devices. The soldiers earned numerous Purple Hearts, 24 Bronze Stars with valor devices and a Silver Star, according to El Paso Times archives.

During the 14-month deployment, 39 soldiers were killed. Those soldiers are memorialized on a monument at Biggs Army Airfield.

Even before the brigade deployed, Twitty faced an uphill battle, building and training the unit from scratch, without much in the way of equipment or unit structure. The brigade trained on ranges that hadn't seen use by armored soldiers since the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment left in 1996.

Then, as the brigade prepared to go to the National Training Center for its pre-deployment certification exercises, Twitty was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. He was forced to sit out the training rotation, and he underwent surgery and then radiation treatments. But he couldn't be kept away from his soldiers as they headed for war. As soon as he had completed his treatments, he joined his soldiers in Kuwait before they headed for Mosul.

For Twitty, returning to Fort Bliss is a welcome development. He said that during his first assignment here, he and his soldiers were embraced by the El Paso community.

"When we first got on the ground here (in 2005), there were people calling me who I had no clue who they were asking me how they could assist me and my soldiers," Twitty said. "I have never been a part of a community that has embraced their soldiers and their families like (they do) here."

Pittard said that before the previous commander of Fort Bliss, Maj. Gen. Howard Bromberg, departed, they discussed candidates to fill the position of deputy commanding general. Pittard said that he and Bromberg were looking for a former brigade commander who also had experience at Fort Bliss.

"I've watched him from afar for years and I saw some things he was doing in Mosul and was very impressed with it," Pittard said. "There's so many things to be impressed by with General Twitty: his experience, his drive, his leadership and his care for soldiers and their families."

Once the headquarters for the 1st Armored Division is relocated to Fort Bliss in spring or summer of next year, Twitty will become one of two deputy commanding generals for the division.